Yosemite tragedy: O.C. campers tried to help

A group of men work to pull a Yorba Linda woman from the waters of the Merced River in Yosemite National Park earlier this week. The woman was rescued, but her 10-year-old son drowned. Searchers are still looking for her 6-year-old son who was swept away by the strong currents.COURTESY OF LAYNE FOSTER

Char Adams had never seen her son Jacob happier in his six years as he played in the Merced River at Yosemite National Park last week. That was just moments before, Bob Kopeny said, the river carried Jacob away. He's yet to be found.

"Deceptive," Kopeny, pastor of Calvary Chapel East Anaheim, called the swimming spot on Saturday. "It seemed so inviting. It was a hot day, in the 90s."

Several days after a tragedy that killed one boy and left his brother missing, congregants at Calvary Chapel whispered several rounds of prayer dedicated to the Adams family. About 400 churchgoers cried and prayed below several television-size images of the two boys embracing at the bottom of a green slide.

Char Adams and her husband, Angelo Adams, of Yorba Linda, had just married a few weeks ago. They decided to attend camp as a family with their congregation in Oakhurst. Most were at Bass Lake but opted for a hike in Yosemite.

That day, Wednesday, Char, her older son, Josh Reish, and her two other boys – Jacob and Andreas, or "Andy" – waded in a tranquil spot for a dip, enjoying themselves and playing as the boys' father, Angelo – who can't swim, and Josh's fiancée watched from a nearby bridge, Kopeny said.

Suddenly, Char and Josh lost sight of Jacob. Char and Josh looked for him and found the boy, grabbing him twice before the raging water pressure forced him from their grasp, Kopeny said. The two then noticed Andy had disappeared somewhere during that time.

Char and Josh may have lost their lives if it weren't for passers-by who rescued both, Kopeny said. They suffered injuries and were still in a Northern California hospital on Saturday.

The passers-by, members of the Foster family of Yorba Linda, were in the Yosemite Valley for some summer camping.

During a hike up the popular Mist Trail this week, Layne Foster, 13, came across a group of people feverishly trying to hoist a woman up and out of the Merced River.

He would find out later that the woman's two boys had been swept downstream after wading into the river. Andy Adams died soon after he was pulled from the water, 150 yards from where he was caught in the currents. The search continues for Jacob.

As Layne's father, Brent; his sisters; and his mother enjoyed a tranquil swimming spot downstream, Layne decided to hike ahead. The group he came upon had been able to get a rope around Char Adams and had spent several minutes trying to pull her from the river's swift water.

Reish had already been pulled from the water. Those who were at the scene had brief joy shattered, Brent Foster said, when Char Adams began screaming, "My babies!"

An impromptu rescue group immediately began to fan out along the river, Layne Foster said. Char Adams' back was injured during the rescue, and she was taken to a hospital. Reish had bloody shins, apparently from the rocks in the river, and was also hospitalized.

National Park Service crews plan to search, through today, a roughly one-mile stretch of the river from the Vernal Falls Footbridge to Happy Isles.

The church is collecting donations to help the Adams family with expenses. Checks made out to "CCEA" with "Yosemite Family Relief" written in the memo section may be sent to the church, 5605 E La Palma Ave., Anaheim 92807. Information: 714-695-9650.

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A group of men work to pull a Yorba Linda woman from the waters of the Merced River in Yosemite National Park earlier this week. The woman was rescued, but her 10-year-old son drowned. Searchers are still looking for her 6-year-old son who was swept away by the strong currents. COURTESY OF LAYNE FOSTER
Visitors stop for photos on Yosemite National Park's Vernal Fall footbridge in April of this year. Water flow rates on the Merced River were much lower when this week's fatality occurred near this spot. ERIK SKINDRUD, THE MARIPOSA GAZETTE
A hiker takes a photo from the top of Vernal Falls in Yosemite in this July 20, 2011, file photo. Yosemite National Park officials say one boy is dead and another is missing after they were swept away Wednesday Aug. 15, 2012 in the Merced River. Park officials say the two were part of a family visiting from Southern California that had been hiking near the Vernal Fall Footbridge. FILE PHOTO: GOSIA WOZNIACKA, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
This photo taken Wednesday shows the area downriver to where two boys were swept away by the Merced River near the Vernal Falls Footbridge in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite National Park officials confirmed one boy is dead and the other is sill missing. National Park Service search and rescue crews continued to ply rough terrain on Friday. “The search will continue throughout the weekend,” Yosemite ranger and spokesman Scott Gediman said. “We'll search as diligently as we can and hope for the best.” COURTESY OF NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
This photo taken Wednesday shows the area where the two boys entered the water within the Merced River near the Vernal Falls Footbridge in Yosemite National Park before being swept away by the current. "How exactly that happened," whether they got to a point that was too deep, or something similar, "we don't know," said Yosemite ranger and spokesman Scott Gediman. COURTESY OF NATIONAL PARK
Shown in a family photo are 10-year-old Andreas Adams, who died soon after he was pulled from the water, 150 yards from where he was caught in the currents Wednesday. The search continues for his brother, 6-year-old Jacob. COURTESY PHOTO

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